stories and go behind the scenes at aljazeera.com/"techknow." following us on twitter facebook, google plus and more. you ♪ this is al jazeera america live from new york city. i am tony harris with a look at todd's top stories. the search is on for hundreds of people after a ferry capsizes in south korea. all about 8 of 127 girls abducted from a school in nigeria have been rescued. a setback as insurgents commandear crews. deliveries on edge in missouri as the f.b.i. tries to find a

person who is shooting at cars on the highway. ♪ more visibility is hamper -- lower visibility is hampering results from getting survivors. the vessel made a distress call just before 9:00 a.m. local time on wednesday and tipped over. there were 462 people on board. peop officials say six people have died and hundreds are missing >> reporter: the early stages of this disaster were filled with terror for the passengers as the ferry lurched ever further on to it's side but with some hope the rescue operation was underway swiftly survivors were plucked from the ship. as they came ashore, the government response center said 368 had been saved, 107 still missing. >> i held the handrail and moved

toward the right of the ferry to try to get at a time helicopter. rubbish bins were floating around me. the water came up to my neck. >> for the parents who waf he had waves their children off and were told they were all rescued. officials miscalculated. fewer than 80 were confirmed safe, 300 passengers missing. >> the announcement told us we should stay still, but the ship was already sinking. there were a lot of students who did not get out of the ship. >> as night fell for the parents waiting on the dockside, fear was giving way to despair. >> translator: do you think they are hoo alive now? they are all dead, already all dead. the authorities just said such operations are underway >> reporter: here not just emergency services but relatives keeping an anguished vigil

looking out into the black, inc.y water waiting for any news to come back from the rescue site. >> the anxious wait of parents. >> this father sayi another parent received a text message from the child still inside the ship. he and the rest of the parents can only hope the coming hours will bring them some certainty about the fate of their loved ones. investigators will be looking for answers as to what you caused a modern ferry simply to roll over and sink. harry fawset. >> more details on this ferry accident. jonathan? >> this is actually a very popular trip for koreans. this ferry had no safety problems and was not overloaded. it left outside of seoul on tuesday night. it was two hours late because of fog. it carried 462 passengers.

70% were high school students on a field trip. they were headed to the island south of the corps ian peninsula. it's a world heritage site, extremely popular with school groups. it's 13 hours long. it sails overnight in the dark. there are not a lot of cabins on that ferry. many were in the game room, in the cafeteria when it started siring. at the time, they were told to stay put. this happened about 9:00 a.m. on wednesday. passengers heard a loud impact and the ship started to go down in this general area here off of the island. it's unclear exactly what happened, but websites that track ships put the ferry hear about 30 minutes before the distress call. >> that's important because it's between these islands and suggests it may have been off course. this is the route the ferry generally takes. some korean numbers reports suggest the captain may have tried to take a shortcut between the islands and ran into trouble, possibly to make up for lost time.

now, the company has strongly denied this. there has been a lot of confusion from officials, but the bottom line is, it's been nearly 24 hours since that ferry went down and hundreds remain missing. tony? >> jonathan, thank you. all but eight of the 127 girls abducted from a school in ni nigeria yesterday have been rescued. he von received that. she is on the line with us. what more can you tell us about that letter that you received and about the rescue of these girls? >> well, in a statement released in the nigh year january capital, the defense department say eight girls are now remaining captured by those whom they were abducted by. they say they rescued at least 121. all of the girls have been taken within the late hours of wednesday. >> they say it has been confirmed by the principal of

the school. the principal of the school says that all students have returned except eight and they have been ongoing in a search operation to tr try to find the eight still missing. the military have not given any details publically about how this is, whether it was a dramatic rescue, where they were able to find the girls, whether they were able to capture any of the assailants or kidnappers. we understand they may have gathered some intelligence from the girls earlier in the day. about tep to 15 girls had escaped from the attackers when they were conveying that they had broke down. >> we know schools have been attacked before but this kind of mass kidnapping, is this a sign of a strategy shift for the

group? >> well, that's an interesting question. indeed, we have seen the group attack schools before, usually burning them down and destroying them, and that was the idealology of the group, that education is against their belief of girls and boys. we never have seen anything on this scale. you might say, yes, this has been a change of strategy to try and have more impact on the communities which they have attacked previously and to try to get the attention of the nigerian authorities. remember thousands of nigerian soldiers have been deployed in the region in the last year to fight the group. the government has persistently said that the group has been diminished and that the group is on the run. but clearly, this attack on the school t is as much a public statement throughout there from the authorities about how successful they are in prosecuting this war, if you

like against the group and many people, this was an attempt by the group to show that they are still very able to attack. >> yvonne, thank you. we appreciate it. earlier, i spoke with robb and sanders, a former u.s. ambassador to nigh year i can't and asked her why this group would kidnap school girls and how the nigerian government should respond? >> one of the things i have always said, think about the taliban when you are thinking about boca horan. i said that in 2009. it's something i discussed with the government, my team and i, that the tactics they tend to follow the most tend to be what the taliban is doing. we saw what happened with malala in afghanistan. maybe this is their way of doing the same thing. the other thing that bothers me is you have the world economic forum for africa coming up in nigeria the first week of may. you have an attack this morning and another village not too far away in borno state and i think

these uptick in attacks. trying to have another big bang in fallujah and trying to be on alert to do for that as to what to do about bova raton? negotiate with them to disarm or attack them militarily? what are the options here? the good options? >> there are a couple of options. the most significant to me is to have better intel. you have to have better intelligence of where they might -- you might dot their next attack. you have to ensure that all soft targets and maybe you have to coalesce some of these targets together so you have a better show of force around the soft targets so they don't become, you know, an element of attack

for boca laron. i worry about complicity, whether there are complicity issues. i am that happens in nigeria. so, i am worried about that. and then i guess they have to have a better relationship with the donor nations in this terms of providing training, assistance and, also, help with their intel. i think they are doing all of these things, but clearly, it's not enough. they declared a state of emergency. clearly what they are doing is not enough to deter them. >> former u.s. ambassador to nigeria, robb and sanders. a senior u.s. official says russia could face more sanctions if tomorrow's talks aimed at ending the crisis in ukraine fail. this as ukraine's government faced a setback to take back buildings. a pro-russian activists who were seizing those buildings appear to have taken control of several

armored vkz and their crews. jackie roland has more now from donnperign donetsk. >> it's a clear message from the authorities in kiev that they control the skies down on the ground armed demonstrators don't seem to be will being. the regional parliament in their hands, they add the city council building to their list of con quests. they have seen crimea break away and they want their regions to follow. >> we have come into this building so that kiev accepts our demands, the demands of the ordinary people of the donetsk region to adopt a law on a local referendum >> reporter: the seizure of the building may be dramatic but council members insist it's business as usual. despite gunmen stalking the core dors, civil servants are trying to get on with running the city. >> it's not clear how much

public support there is for the people occupying these buildings. here in donetsk, opinions are divided about whether the future life with europe or with stronger ties with russia. >> about 100 kilometers north of here in the city of kanatursk, the army seems to have suffered a set back after retaking control of an air strip on tuesday, the army has left several armored vehicles to pro-russian militia. they paraded them through town flying the russian flag. the para militaries then make a short drive north toslovslov where pro-russian sentiment is running high, a parade and some enthusiastic spectators that have claimed that some careenia soldiers are switched side. >> the people aren't supposed to

come come: the para troopers joined the peoples army. >> the army denies there are any defenses. across eastern engineukraine, il has a fight on its hand. nato said there is no change in the size and position of russian forces amassed on ukraine's eastern border. these satellite images were released last week and show about 20,000 troops near the bord border. nato says russia has moved around equipment but there is no evidence those troops are prepare to go pull back or advance. t the united nations security council met to discuss the human rights situation, one day after the u.n. released a report on the impact of the crisis. the latest now from the u.n. >> reporter: the u.n. assistant secretary general for human rights went to ukraine to look

into the issue of human rights violations. the report was delivered to the security council on wednesday with a number of key findings. among them that the vote in crimea was done in an environment of intimidation in the presence of armed soldiers without insigni nia and there had been credible allegations of tortures, killing after the arrests of activists and journalists who did not support the referendum and there had been multiple examples of vote rigging and many people voting more than once. it also looked into allegations by the russians that russian speakers in ukraine had been targeted and had been threatened. the report says that this allegation was not true and the attacks were not widespread nor systemic and a indicates of russia's exaggeration. not surprisingly, the russian ambassador denied the report and said it was biased. he also said ukraine was to

blame for the violence in the country. on the other side, the u.k. said that the russians had once again created a fantasies narrative development in ukraine and the u.s. ambassador said the russian strategy seems to be if you don't like the message, shoot the messenger, deep divisions in the u.n. security council. hope for another breakthrough in the four-way talks in geneva on thursday. the search is on for the person who has been shooting at cars on highways in the conditikansas city area. there have been 20 shootings since early march. three people have been wounded. police now say 12 of them are connected, but they won't say how. the details now on the investigation >> reporter: kansas city police reiterated the highway shootings continue to be a high priority prior to. they have not released any information about a possible suspect or vehicles that may be involved. what's most harrowing about this case is the seemingly randyom election of the target.

one reason kansas city drivers continue to be looking over their shoulders. >> for the last week and a half, kansas city police have been posted along highways where a rash of serial shootings has drivers on edge. >> there were two shots fired into a vehicle. >> this is probably where the first one hit. >> someone opened fire on chris's car. out of concern for his safety, he asked us to only use his first name. >> i was going sent miles an hour when the window shattered in my face. >> another shot throughout the driver's sore passing through his level calf and embedded in his right leg. >> that's where it still is. >> 10 minutes after chris was shot, miles away, tom mcfarland was targeted. >> i know there was a vehicle over on my right back shoulder. that's where the bullet came from. >> since early march, police say there have been more than 20 highway shootings and, so far, investigators believe 12 of them are linked. what they won't say is if they

have any information about a potential suspect, weapon, or the shooter's vehicle. >> it is so inconsistent right now with some of the information we have, we don't want to suggest that we are looking for a specific thing. >> 7 shooters happened around the grandview triangle. most were shot during the early morning hours. >> a number of the victims and to come under fire when highways split or using off ramps. >> michael tabin said there are key differences between this case and the washington, d.c. sniper shootings from 2002 where 10 people were killed and residents in the nation's capitol were paralyzed with fear. >> it doesn't appear to be a sniper or someone lying in wait. out there on the road. a little bit of recklessness involved there. it's a little different than what we have seen but it's something, i think, clearly is trying to attract attention and get us talking about what's happening.

>> kansas city ati and fbi are discussing the situation. a reward has been offered. until that happens, officers keep a clo close eye on rush-hour commuters. >> i pay attention to everything around me, especially when the highway is splitting or i am exiting the highway. my attention level is piqued. >> there have been three injuries in these cases, there have been no fatalities and police say that it's been about 10 days since there have been any shootings in the grandview triangle where many of these shootings took place and police stepped up their presence along that interchange. >> usher karishi. encouraging signs for america's economy. ali velshi is here looking at new reports around the country and what they mean going forward. new orleans officials say they can eliminate chronic homelessness in their city by next year.

a new plan to fix environment and health regulations in north carolina today on the heels of coal ash

in the river earlier this year. warnings about swimming in the river and eating fish, the governor focuses on converting cool ash ponds and protecting the quality of drinking water. general motors, in a court filingez says a restructuring plan prevents it from being sued. gm is facing at least 36 lawsuits over the issue which has been blamed for at least 13 deaths. the u.s. stockmarket rose today with the s & p 500, well, it ended its best 3-day rally in close to months now. it follows new information released by the federal reserve showing economic growth picking

up across most of the country. okay. that's the beige book. ali, break it down. what's in that book, the beige book? >> hi, tony, the beige book. it comes out eight times a year published by the federal reserve. by the way just so that you know any of our serious viewers, this isn't actually -- this is a fake prop. there is nothing in it. the point is they put out this thing. it's called the beige book. i am sure once it was beige and it is a collection of an he can't anecdotes about real people and businesses and less about dry numbers. this is anecdotal. we learned that in the chicago area, steel production returned to normal levels but that food manufacturers are out of boston, richmond and dallas struggled with a drop in demand because of the weather. the report suggests most of the country saw a modest to moderate pick-up in economic activity

between mid march and early april and that, of course, is particularly in regions hit hard by winter weather: increases in most areas of the country but the outlook for housing remained a little bit cloudy. that's all in this month's beige book. >> what about other economic news? there was more news that came in today. right? >> a lot of stuff. this is one of those weird periods where we are getting mostly good news. industrial production which measures the output of industry, mines, factories and utilities, grew 7/10th of a percent in a positive surprise. february output was revised to 1.2%. these gains mean industrial production grew and impressive 4.4% in the first quarter compared to a year ago. so we are making stuff. these are the jobs that employ people. the other one we got, housing starts, starts mean groundbreaking activity for new homes up 2.8% in march, the

fastest pace so far this year. permits, housing permits which are, you know, a barometer for future construction, that fell 2.4%. >> that's a little bit weird. and then this afternoon, i was out listening to federal reserve chair janet yellen at the economic club in new york. one of the most interesting things she said is it's going to take at least two years for the economy to close in on the feds' goals, lower employment and they want a little bit of higher inflation, meaning too many people are out of work. inflation is too low. interest rates will stay where they are. >> all right. >> china, my friend, i celebrated with chinese food for lunch but chinese growth still very, very strong, slowing down. i want to talk about the impact that has on american businesses and investors or even people who want to go work in china or take advantage of the growth in china. it's still really, really strong. so, i am going to put that in perspective for you on my show. >> do it.

"real money," ali velshi. he will have the beige book as well. ali, i appreciate it. thank you. new orleans faced a daunting homeless problem in the months and years following hurricane katrina but it seems like it's now on track to eliminate chronic homelessness by 2015. as part of our series, homeless in america, robert ray shares one couple's success story. >> new orleans is a city that understands what it means to be homeless. >> it's hard. depressing. >> hurricane katrina's flood waters submerged about 80% of the city, leaving thousands without shelter. >> you can see these tense where homeless people live under a major bridge here in new orleans. now, chronic homelessness has always been a challenge in the city. after hurricane katrina hit, the numbers went up, and the issue got even more prevalent. >> we didn't have anything. >> but a cardboard box.

>> we slept underneath a tree. >> new orleans is the only home that wayne and julie have ever known. married fourteen years, the couple has fought through cancer and substance abuse and survived in a make-shifthomeless camp with hundreds of others for or a year after katrina. >> sometimes we had to walk in spots where we smell nothing but, you know, urine. >> today, they are healthy and sober, working to help the estimated 670 or so chronically homeless in the city and living in this home for six years with the support of the nonprofit, unity coalition of new orleans, who says they can eliminate the problem here by 2015. >> over the last four years p we have been able to help 2500 former homeless people. >> that's why our numbers have gone down. >> a chronically homeless individual is someone who has

experienced homelessness for a year or longer or who has had at least four episodes of homelessness in the last three years and has a disability. >> the solution now around the country is permanent housing, not just shelters and hope it doesn't go away. >> the number of experiencing chronichomelessness across the country has declined by 25% since 2011 -- 2007, that according to the department of housing and urban development. >> you have to have the resolve to do it. >> helping those still sleeping under bridges, street corners, people with mental and physical disabilities. >> no more homeless. >> that's our hope. >> robert ray, al jazeera, new orleans. >> that coming up, a new lee released video shows what is believed to be one of the largest gathering of al-qaeda leaders and fighters in years. also, meteorologist cosprain wh

the weather to mean a miserable spring for people with allergies.

u.s. officials are analyzing a video with the largest known al-qaeda gathering in yemen. it shows them celebrating a prijz break. the focus is on this man, nasir al aheshi who is said to be the leader in the area. in february, 29 of its members were broken out of a yemeni jail in a daring daytime assault. the u.s. has been trying to kill or capture the group's leaders since it's formation in 2009. there have been an estimated 100

drone strikes in yemen. u.s. efforts, the closing of embassies and consulates was sparked by a perceived threat from al-qaeda in the arabian peninsula. a.j., what going on? we will roll the video here in a moment. but what is going on this video? and what do we know about it? >> reporter: what you see going on this video is essentially another member of the class of 1989. this is nazir al flexing. the class of '89, all of those al-qaeda elements that kicked the so far yes, it is out. then they went out with emboldend carries characters to take on the world. he was 0 some a bin laden's assistant in afghanistan. he was there and all of these other people that were there who graduated essentially from that terrorism era moving out into the world, showing people what

it is they can do. in this video, they are celebrating after a prison break that took place sometime late in february or early march, and he is greating and talking to these folks in this video and they were singing fight so songs, waving flags. this is about showing we are aqap and a force to be reckoned with. he made a special appeal to the u.s. to listen up and recognize aqap is still coming after the u.s. >> j j. did the united states know about this gathering before it happened or as it was happening? >> reporter: i am not sure about before or after. i have a hard time before or during, but i have a hard time believing they did not know about it at least shortly after it took place. >> sure? >> but there has been a big question about why it was allowed to happen should they not have known about it. one of the things that has crossed my mind was perhaps they did. perhaps they wanted today see who would be there, figure out some new connections, figure out

some new avenues to make their xlanz, because let's be honest about this. the intelligence community has to plot as well how they are going to deal with their targets. one of the things we learned not too long ago is that a lot of the intelligence that was gotten in the years following the 9-11 attacks when so many people were rounded up and is not to gitmo. >> intel is no good. a lot have been killed off in drone strikes. they needed to develop some new links and understanding of who this organization is and what -- who makes it up and what they do and what their specialties are. i am thinking they may have been watching this very closely and carefully to figure out where they go from here. >> does the war in syria have anything to do with this video and this gathering? >> without a doubt. the war in syria has been a training ground for tens of thousands of foreign fighters that have been flowing in there. and they come from all over the world. most of them from the middle

east. you have many from the west. i have been told that there are hundreds from america there. and what has been going on syria has been an opportunity to go from all over these locations, yemen and saudi arabia, malaysia, to go there to train and learn and to go to hair hear them basis with their home terrorist organizations and apply those skills, and i am almost certain that al-qaeda in the arabian peninsula has been able to benefit from this because of the fact that they are so tightly controlled in yemen and it's hard to find freedom to do much there, although this video wouldn't say to you that they are not free. i just think this particular video with them being bold about it and recognizing and proving to us as well, yemen is a small country on a moop >> right? >> it's a big plates in the real worldap >> right? >> it's a big plates in the real wor world. >> what is all of this? and putting all of these pieces that you are discussing here with us, putting them together,

what does it tell us about and the united states's ability to capture and kill these -- or kill these operatives? >> i was talking with the house intelligence committee chairman, mike rogers last week, about this very thing. and part of what he said to me was: this means the threat stream to the u.s. is now more dangerous, more troubling, and more of a problem than the threat stream was before 9-11. >> really? >> reporter: ? >> so it means the u.s. is facing at different threat, part because of the evolution of these terrorist organizations, also in part because of the new blood in the organizations and, one really important factor, you now have organizations that don't believe they need al-qaeda's blessing to do anything and they can do it on their own with their own ideas. so the u.s. is facing a significant challenge according to rogers. you and i spoke with a counter

terrorism official today as well who said: what we are facing right now is a renewed situation where the u.s. has to keep a close eye on aqap and everything and every part of that the organization >> jj, i appreciate it, al jazeera's contributor joining us from washington, d.c. jj, thank you. more than 130 million americans voted during the 2012 elections. compare that to india where nearly a billion people will vote with some 150 billion of them casting a ballot for the very first time and these first timers could 16 the election to their benefit >> reporter: stephanie chair yot is about to graduate from university. she is 19, passionate and eager to make a difference. >> i have the energy and poten toshl inflewsence people according to india's election commission, 13 million young

indians like stephanie are expected to vote for the very first time. and they could play a major role in deciding who is elected in more than 500 constituencies across india. >> that's because india's election is too close to call. a few hundred votes in the smallest constituencies could make the difference. >> in the professor says at a time political parties have courted first-time voters during election season. >> there is an emporia where youth are and we think youth transform the system. one needs to see the long run, in what way they would like us to sustain the ideals. >> for these first time voters, it's less about the big personalities that often dominate indian politics and more about each party's commitment to issues. >> for me as a first time voter, i am not going to vote on who made the mistakes; on who has an

ideology and how secular they are. >> educating on things like that, none of the parties are very satisfactory. >> i think these politicians need to be about issues. i think we should make a choice about how they teal with them. >> that's the political choices. >> the message from india's political party is loud and clear: vote for us, and we will deliver on our promises. but for first time voters like stephy, it's not about which party's message is the loudest but who shall can trust to help navigate the complex economics of the world's largest democracy. libby did you have, al jazeera, new delhi. >> in great britain, hacked voicemail messages when he was the editor of news of the world, andy coulson said he heard messages a former cabinet member

left for his lover. he said he didn't know they were illegal. rupert murdock shut the door on "the news of the world" in 2011. >> in a twist, a group says it still wants to continue with peace talks. the pakistack taliban say the a violated cease fire. the taliban wants to overthrow the government and establish a hard-line version of islamic law. in venzuela, thousands of cuban doctors are working in hospitals as part of a deal years ago, in return, havan a gets $32,000,000,000 in oil. some of those doctors are underpaid and abused but would rather live on the run in venzuela than return to cuba. march younger a sanchez has the story. >> living out of a backpack for seven years, cuban nurse by day,

cleaning homes, cooking and hiding from the police. he doesn't want to be identified. terrified of arrest because he doesn't have the proper documents. >> in venzuela, i don't want to continue living in venzuela because of the insecurity. now, i have to hide like a prisoner so the police don't arrest me for not having papers. my passport isn't stamped. if i am detained, i will be jailed, and no one will help me. >> defecting from the social health program, a deal sealed by hugo chavez. billions of dollars in oil in return, cuba sends thousands of medical staff. >> over a decade ago, this social program became the cornerstone of late president hugo chaffees's social assist program. they gave healthcare to those who gint have it. >> a south colorado group, solidarity without borders claims 8,000 cuban doctors have

fled from venzuela. cuban doctor agrees mistaken doctors have defected. he said the number is not important. >> >> translator: it's true some doctors have abandoned the social program, but the number is insignificant. we are more than 70,000 doctors here over 100,000 have come and gone. we have saved thousands of lives. mortality rates have gone down. so few leaving will not affect the greatness of this work. >> thousands of venzuelaans in the slums or rural areas get free healthcare in these clinics run by cubans. the cuban doctors have made a difference in her life. >> excellent. i always come here because i can get good care. i never had any complaints. wonderful. >> the cuban professionals have no salaries and are forced to stay? venzuela for as long as both

countries decide. but he wants a better future. >> i am like a boat stranded in a huge ocean without a rudder. i lost nine years of my life here seeing that my decision was better for me. it's been a nightmare. >> employment, solitude, desperation is the price he has been forced to pay for his dreams. anna sanchez. venzuela. a federal judge over turns a ban on early abortions until north dakota t. tony, north dakota is called the heartbeat law and it's a ban on abortions as early as six weeks or when doctors can detect a heart beat but a federal judge ruled the measure invalid and unconstitutional. it was signed into law by the governor last year. the attorney general says he is looking at whether to appeal the decision. the man behind yesterday's bomb

scare in boston is being held on $100,000 bail, kevin edison is charged with a hoax device and making a false bomb threat. he said the 25-year-old said he had a rice cooker inside his backpack. it happened hours after the ceremony's marking last year's bombing. >> the world literacy summit is underway. the state with the lowest literacy rate is mississippi where teaching the poor how to read at an early age is one of the biggest challenges. john hendrik reports >> reporter: sometimes the best award for children's literacy is kind of a first aid. before she can teach the todaylers at her child care center, she has to take on the crimin chip ling hardships. >> a father told me i don't know how to be a father because he said it don't come with a

manual. so, what i see is we need help. >> a report by the annie e. casey foundation ranked mississippi last with literally along with nelson mandela among the 50 american states. fewer have it worse than morehe morehead. >> the gap geeptzing wider between richer and poorer. >> if you could take the delta out of mississippi, the numbers would go way up from what you see. >> that's true. >> for some, strong parenting overcomes poverty. librarian valerie feri is putting her daughter tatiana in college and her grandson in a reading program at three months.

she dead indicated book to him. >> learning to read, to be educated at an early age is very crucial because it gets people out of their cycle of poverty. >> for others, there are some state programs. april may runs mississippi buildingblocks, a state agencies aimed at children in day cares. >> children like that are a sponge. they soak up everything you give them. >> where it operates, the program has lifted reading rates. it operates in just a few dozen of the state's 170 o'day care centers on a budget of $3 million, about 1% of the state's budget for prisons. in the rest of the state, parents can hope for someone like celia ward. >> they are real. what do you do? >> with the strain showing.

john henry, al jazeera, moorhead, mississippi. the former city manager of bell, california, will have to pay back more than $8 million stolen from the city. robert rizzo was also sentenced to 12 years behind bars for a corruption scheme that neil brutted bell. rizzo apologized during sentencing. he told the judge, he breached the public's confidence. >> you think? the polar vortex that made such a miserable winter is gone. the country is dealing with what's being dubbed the policien vortex. they say it has created a bad allergy season. >> after we saw the snow across the northeast yesterday, what it means, tony, is because the cold lasted longer than it would have across most of the north and the northeast down here across the

southern plains, what what that means is the trees bloomed when they wouldn't have normally bloomed and now, they are playing touch-up for many people -- and when they play catch-up, the trees are going to be blooming much faster and much more concentrated across many of these areas. so, if you are dealing with allergies normally, you are going to be seeing a higher policien count. what also is going to be happening is we are going to be seeing the trees blooming when the grass begins to bloom. it's blooming later. normally we see these two faces in two sections. they are going to be closer together. >> that's going to be the problem. we are looking at these temperatures really beginning to pop up across much of the region as we go towards the weekend. on saturday, many of these areas are going to be quiet warm. we talk about temperatures upping toward the north, billings 64 degrees. it is going to be a problem. how you can deal with it? they are suggesting take a shower before you go to bed as well as keep those air filters in your house clean, and if you need to, upgrade to the better ones to get those micro particles out of your air.

>> yeah. makes sense. all right. kenneth, thank you. coming up on al jazeera america, so long obscure words. where are words people use? we will check out what the new s.a. t. looks like. whether to abandoned the monarchy in england. america.

♪ parents can see what the new s.a. t. test will look like in two years' time. nearly 2 million kids take the dreaded test every year. the folks who design it say the new version will use more real-life examples that students can actually relate to. roxannena is here. i am promising you here i am going to let you work through this segment here because i was rude as could be at 4:00? >> you were. >> i was cutting you off at every turn.

there you go. >> thank you. you need to participate. as you said, we are now getting our first look what the new test will be like. the he is say will be optional and students should not leave answers blank. they should take guesses. >> okay. ? >> one of the big changes, no more sat words, worst most people don't use much like pilfe r & r acanteur will be gone. they will have common words based upon context. here is an example from the reading section. the coming decades will likely see more intense clustering of jobs, innovation in a smaller number of bigger cities and regions. the question is: >> the answer? >> i go with b. >> you can say whenever in doubt, go with b. take our word for it. we know that a few questions

will be based upon america's founding documents like the constitution or on text about justits amend freedom. the section that has been the hardest for me, math. calculated or allowed on some sections in the math section. here is an example where you cannot use one. can you figure this out, tony? do it quickly in your head. okay. >> ready? >> the question is: in the equation above what is the value of k? >> ready? when it doubt, go with b. >> so smart. the answer is b. of course. a couple of other changes. the total score will drop from 2400 back to 1600. students will be able to take the test on paper or on a computer. tony, the college board over seeing the test is also going to offer free online courses for students to prepare for it through the kahn academy. they want to lay level the playing field. >> my kids and parents all over

the country paying for the kids' prep. >> did you take the sat? >> i think i mentioned earlier, i turned off my sat brain before i took the test. >> really? especially math? >> i believe. >> thank you,ines. thousands of australians turned out to welcome prince william and his family. australia is a constitutional monarchy. >> could change before the duke who is second in the line to king. andrew takes a look at the prospects of australia becoming a republic. >> they call this a royal tour, a chance for future monarchs to meet their future subjects because the united kingdom's monarch is also australias then the company won independence in 1901, they remain a constitutional monarchwy a kick or queen it's formal head of state, too. prince william will become kick

william of australia, baby george will one day be king george here. >> somebody to look up to. >> that's how i was brought up, and i want my young children to do the same. >> this is as much about celebrity as it is about roy royalty. even sew, you won't find many here critical of australia's attachme attachment. >> isn't universally shared. >> david morris thinks australia should be a republic with its own australian head of state? >> the constitution tells us someone on a throne in a palace has to set above us. >> a referendum was held on whether australia should ditch the monarch i for a president elected by members of the par r parliame parliament. people ventoted against change. elizabeth ii remains australia's queen. the queen son made his own trip

to australia when his son, william, was a baby. since then, charles' popularity dropped but as the baby became a husband and a father, support for the royal family has risen again. opinion polls show a slight but growing majority in favor of keeping the monarchy. >> in a word, should australia be a republic or a monarch i? >> monarch i. >> monarch i? >> republic blic. >> monarchy, of course. >> with celebrities at the helm, the debate is on hold? >> the british family are fabulous. they are promoting grand britain very effectively. we look forward to the day when the brains will welcome an australian. >> this trip, the english couple and their baby son have ten days in australia. whether william or george will one day come back as kings will be up to their family subjects

on the other side of the world. andrew thomas t al jazeera. >>dronnies the new online craze of taking your own picture from a personal drone. >> that's next. then it is real money with allie ch velshi. >> china's economy is slowing down. if you are an investor, don't let that scare you. one for the little guy. i am talking about the small bank on the street corner that survived the recession and takes care of you and your neighbors today. all of that and more on "real money."

scompleefrnling you can call themdronies, a new type of selfie taken with small personal drones. back with that next. >> more and more techies are getting their hands on personal drones that you operate with a remote. they are experimenting with selfies, videos and pictures from high above the ground, posting them on social media. some of these are the ones that are going around.

you can take a look at some of them including one of the works family on pyramid lake in nevada. check it out. >> i spoke to one of the people in the selfie, anit gupta, he thinks dronies will become more popular as time goes by. it's a perfect way to get everyone in the picture. in fact, it's going to start renting out the devices for people to take with them on vacations and show where they are. some people have been commenting, techies are saying we have been doing this for a while now. shiung says i can't believe myself did the selfie but forgot to become famous. there is a picture of the drone, them right down there. hash tag dronies is the new

craze. >> maria, appreciate it. thank you so much. >> that's all of our time for this news hour. thanks for being with us. i am tony harris in new york. always, if you like the latest on any of our stories, head on over to aljazeera.com. "real money" with ali velshi is next. the chinese economy might be slowing down but if you do business with china, you will want a piece of the action. i will tell you why. here in the united states, factories are making more, builders are building more and people like are you spending more. i have a brand-new snapshot of america's economy. little guys who do what the bankers don't, small community banks and their important place on the main streets of america. i am ali velshi. this is "real money."